Hey!

Last blog about Portugal before I tell you all about placement so far. Cascais was probably my favorite place in Portugal. I was actually least excited about this place because I wanted to go to Lagos this day, but I was very pleasantly surprised.

Cascais was also only a single train from Lisbon which took about 45 minutes. When we arrived we had some ideas about what we wanted to do, but no idea how to do them or where they were. The town was adorable. Really quaint with mosaic floor pavements and palm trees. It is right on the water, so there are some beautiful views. When we arrived, we asked the train station how to get to the places we wanted to go and they referred us to the tourist center across the street. The people there were so friendly.  They were all our age and very willing to help out. They had people walking all over the town if you needed help later too.

They pointed us into the direction of Boca do Inferno. It is a cave that collapsed and is now an archway into the sea. During the cooler months, the water is quite rough which explains the name “the mouth of fire”. We saw it during the summer, so it was quite calm. It was really relaxing so just sit by the water and enjoy the views. There is a place to see it from a built area, but we walked down onto the rocks and dangled our feet over the edge. On the walk over to the Boca do Inferno, was some lovely sea side. We wanted to explore the trails that had been built into the rocks, but we were crunched for time. Worth a visit though!

On our way back to the town, we stopped by this relatively secluded beach. We only stayed a little bit, but it was nice to walk into the water and lay on some sandy beaches. We were going to go to a bigger beach, but by the end of the day we were exhausted.

We then headed to Boca da Roca … the most western point in Europe. There is a bus that runs straight there from the town. It took about 20 minutes. As we got further out of the town, higher up the Cliffside, and closer to the ocean the weather got a bit cooler and cloudier. It was so windy there! My hair went all over the place. It was really a stunning view of endless ocean and epic Cliffside. Surrounding the trails were succulents because I guess that is all that can grow under those conditions! The further to the left you went the less windy it got at least. I suggest you bring a sweater because it did get cold. Staring out to the water, we thought about how people in the past stared out onto the endless ocean and wondered what was on the other side and it was those questions that sent people across the ocean to find America and the New World. It was just very humbling.

After we headed back into the town and had a lovely meal. We had AMAZING sangria and I tried goat cheese for the first time. It was super creamy. The food was delicious. I will miss Portuguese food. One thing I will mention is that our servers did a terrible job giving correct change back to the point where we could have gotten over 30 euros back that we shouldn’t have. The math skills just seemed to be lacking. We did the honest thing and gave them the money back again haha.

I loved Portugal. I want to go to the Algarve next on the southern coast and see the caves and all the small towns along the coast. There is always next time when it only costs £40 to get there!

Anyway I’m off,

Holly